Content-Based Notification and User-Transparent Pull Operation for Simulated Push Transmission of Wireless Email

ABSTRACT

Exemplary system, method, software and apparatus embodiments provide for creating a content-based notification for a mobile device, as a simulated push operation, for devices which do not have push capability. The system comprises a database, a server, and may also include a second web server for user account configuration. The database is adapted to store user account configuration and preference information. The server is adapted to receive a first message having a first protocol, such as SMTP, and to determine whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided. When the content-based notification is to be provided, the server is adapted to extract a subset of information from the first message, and using the subset of information, to create a second message having a second, different protocol, such as SMS. The second message is transferred to a wireless network for transmission to the mobile device, with the second message providing the content-based notification of the first message. The information extracted from the first message enables a user to determine whether they want to download the complete message, as a user-transparent pull operation, and typically includes the from, to, size, date, subject fields, and a portion of the body of the first message, up to the remaining capacity of the second message.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/268,903, filed Nov. 7, 2005, inventors JohnDavies and Martin Chapman, entitled “Content-Based Notification andUser-Transparent Pull Operation for Simulated Push Transmission ofWireless Email”, which is further related to, a conversion of and claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/667,038,filed Apr. 1, 2005, inventors John Davies and Martin Chapman, entitled“System to Simulate Push Based Email Delivery”, all of which arecommonly assigned herewith, the contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference with the same full force and effect as if set forthin their entireties herein, and with priority claimed for all commonlydisclosed subject matter.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in general, relates to wireless transmission ofelectronic mail (“email”) to mobile devices and, more particularly,relates to an apparatus, method, system and software for providingwireless, content-based notification of an email to a mobile deviceusing a first, limited capacity protocol, and a user-transparent pulloperation for a simulated push transmission of a complete email using asecond protocol.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic mail to many mobile devices such as cellular telephones,“smart” cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), andnotebook computers, in the prior art, have typically required a user tofirst initiate a communication session with the service provider.Following establishment of the session, the user may then query orotherwise determine whether any email is available for wirelessdownloading to the mobile device and, if so, request the download (i.e.,thereby performing a “pull” operation).

These various mobile devices, such as a typical cellular phone, arelimited to such pull operations for downloading email or otherinformation, and do not have other or additional capabilities. Suchlimitations are due to hardware, software, or both hardware andsoftware. In addition, the infrastructure provided by the serviceprovider is also limited, due to either the various protocols utilized(e.g., Advanced Mobile Phone System (“AMPS”), Code Division MultipleAccess (“CDMA”), Global System for Mobile (“GSM”)) or to limitedbandwidth for a given service area. To determine whether email isavailable throughout a day, a user must repeatedly initiate suchwireless communication sessions, regardless of whether email is, infact, available for downloading. Not only is such an activity a waste ofthe user's time and effort when no email is available, such repeatedquery sessions also drain and waste precious battery capacity, andutilize limited and potentially expensive airtime. In addition, whenemail is available, the user's receipt of the email typically has beendelayed until the user, in fact, initiates the communication session andperforms the query. From the perspective of the service provider, suchrepeated query sessions may also be a waste of available bandwidth andservice capacity.

As an alternative, service providers may provide a dedicatedinfrastructure to automatically send all email to specialized mobiledevices, such as the Blackberry devices provided by Research In Motion,which have the capability and are configured to automatically receiveall email without such a prior query session (i.e., the devices andservice provider have always on “push” technology). Such devices,however, are significantly more complicated and expensive than typicalmobile telephones and, in addition, require support from a specializedinfrastructure. This push technology is not compatible with many, if notmost, current and legacy cellular telephones.

As a consequence, a need remains for a method, apparatus and system toprovide a simulated push operation of email to these devices which arecapable of only pull operations, using a wireless transmissioninfrastructure which does not have such separate push capability orwhich is otherwise limited by bandwidth or service capacity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a method,apparatus, software and system which create a content-based notificationof an email which is transmitted to a typical, generic or legacy mobiledevice, such as a cellular telephone or PDA. The various exemplaryembodiments thereby provide a simulated push operation of email to thesedevices which are capable of only pull operations, and use a wirelesstransmission infrastructure which does not have such separate pushcapability or is otherwise limited by bandwidth or service capacity. Themethod, apparatus, software and system of the exemplary embodimentsutilize currently available protocols having limited capacity channelsto provide a notification of an email to the mobile device, with thenotification having sufficient and meaningful information to enable auser to reasonably determine whether to view a corresponding completeemail using a transparent pull operation. The exemplary method,apparatus and system embodiments also provide for user customization,such that a user is notified of only those emails which the user hasdetermined would be significant in a given period of time or in a givenlocation.

A first exemplary embodiment provides a system for creating acontent-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality ofcommunication protocols. The system comprises a database, a server, andmay also include a second, web server. The database is adapted to storeuser account configuration and preference information. The server isadapted to receive a first message having a first protocol of theplurality of communication protocols and to determine whether thecontent-based notification for the first message should be provided.When the content-based notification is to be provided, the server isadapted to extract a subset of information from the first message; usingthe subset of information, to create a second message having a secondprotocol of the plurality of communication protocols, in which thesecond protocol is different than the first protocol; and to transferthe second message for transmission to the mobile device, with thesecond message providing the content-based notification of the firstmessage.

Typically, the first protocol is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP)or an extension of Simple Mail Transport Protocol, and the secondprotocol is Short Message Service (SMS), which has an informationcapacity substantially less than the information capacity of an SMTPmessage, by as much as several orders of magnitude. The web server isadapted to provide user access for user account configuration and userpreference determination, and to store user account configuration andpreference information in the database

Depending upon the selected embodiment, the server is further adapted toencapsulate the second message as a data payload in a third messagehaving a third protocol, which may be SMTP or another protocol, such asHypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”), Extensible Markup Language(“XML”), SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for Instant Messaging andPresence Leverage Extensions (“SIMPLE”), Internet Relay Chat (“IRC”),Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (“XMPP”), or InstantMessaging (“IM”, also referred to as Instant Message or InstantMessenger); to provide an address header for the third message for themobile device; and to transmit the third message to a wireless networkfor extraction of the second message from the third message andtransmission of the second message to the mobile device.

In exemplary embodiments, the server is further adapted to authenticatean account of the recipient of the first message. The server may befurther adapted to filter the first message using at least one securityfilter of a plurality of security filters, the plurality of securityfilters comprising at least two filters of the following filters:Directory Harvest Attack Protection; Secure Sockets Layer; TransportLayer Security; Real-time Blacklist Lookup (“RBL”); an allowable messagelist; a prohibited message list; a firewall, and a user-defined securityprocesses. The server may be further adapted to filter the first messageusing at least one filter of a plurality of filters, the plurality offilters comprising at least two filters of the following filters: ananti-virus filter, an anti-spam filter; a sieve rule filter; aninsertion filter; and a user-defined filter. In selected embodiments,the server is further adapted to apply a plurality of sieve ruleprocesses to the first message. In addition, the server may be furtheradapted to modify, reject, delete, redirect, archive, log or quarantinethe first message. The system may also be adapted to determine whetherthe content-based notification for the first message should be providedby determining at least one user preference of a plurality of userpreferences, the plurality of user preferences comprising at least twoof the following user preferences: day of the week, time of day, one ormore keywords, sender, location, spam score, type of attachment, orforwarded account.

Extracting the subset of information from the first message may beperformed by the server, in exemplary embodiments, by selecting aplurality of fields of the first message, the plurality of fieldscomprising at least two of the following fields: a “FROM” field; a “TO”field; a “DATE” field; a “SIZE” field; a “SUBJECT” field; a “CC” field;all or a variable portion of a “BODY” field up to a remaining capacityof the second message; an attachment type; an attachment name; a numberof attachments; an attachment size; an inserted tag; an insertedmessage; an inserted banner; an inserted spam score; an email groupdesignation; or a user-defined field. The server may be further adaptedto create the second message by differentially selecting the pluralityof fields based on whether the first message was transmitted as amessage forward or as a direct message.

In exemplary embodiments, the server is further adapted to, in responseto a user request, transfer the first message for transmission of all orpart of the first message to the mobile device. The user request istypically transmitted using another protocol, such as a version ofeither Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message AccessProtocol (IMAP).

Another exemplary embodiment provides an apparatus for creating acontent-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality ofcommunication protocols. The apparatus comprises a network interface, amemory, and a processor. The network interface is couplable to acommunication channel to receive a first message having a Simple MailTransport Protocol (SMTP) of the plurality of communication protocolsand to transmit a third (SMTP) message to a wireless network forextraction of a second message from the third message and transmissionof the second message to the mobile device. The memory is adapted tostore user account configuration and preference information. Theprocessor is adapted to authenticate an account of the recipient of thefirst message; to determine whether the content-based notification forthe first message should be provided; when the content-basednotification is to be provided, to extract a subset of information byselecting a plurality of fields from the first message and, using thesubset of information, to create the second message having a ShortMessage Service (SMS) protocol of the plurality of communicationprotocols, and the second message providing the content-basednotification of the first message; to encapsulate the second message asa data payload in the third message and to provide an address header forthe third message for the mobile device.

An exemplary method embodiment of creating a content-based notificationfor a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols is alsoprovided. The exemplary method comprises: receiving a first messagehaving a first protocol of the plurality of communication protocols;determining whether the content-based notification for the first messageshould be provided; when the content-based notification is to beprovided, extracting a subset of information from the first message;using the subset of information, creating a second message having asecond protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, the secondprotocol being different than the first protocol; and transferring thesecond message for transmission to the mobile device, the second messageproviding the content-based notification of the first message. Themethod may also include encapsulating the second message as a datapayload in a third message having a third protocol; providing an addressheader for the third message for the mobile device; and transmitting thethird message to a wireless network for extraction of the second messagefrom the third message and transmission of the second message to themobile device.

In the exemplary embodiments, the method also provides for transferringthe first message for transmission of all or part of the first messageto the mobile device, in response to a user request, such as a POP3 orIMAP request. In addition, user access is also provided through a webserver for user account configuration and user preference determination,followed by storing user account configuration and preferenceinformation in a database.

An exemplary software embodiment, as a tangible medium storingmachine-readable instructions (e.g., storing computer readablesoftware), is also provided for creating a content-based notificationfor a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols. Theexemplary tangible medium storing computer readable software comprises aplurality of program constructs which perform the methodology of theinvention, and may comprise one of more of the following programconstructs: a first program construct adapted to provide for storinguser account configuration and preference information; a second programconstruct adapted to determine whether the content-based notificationshould be provided for a received first message having a Simple MailTransport Protocol (SMTP) of the plurality of communication protocols; athird program construct adapted, when the content-based notification isto be provided, to extract a subset of information by differentiallyselecting a plurality of fields from the first message; a fourth programconstruct adapted to use the subset of information to create a secondmessage having a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol of the pluralityof communication protocols; a fifth program construct adapted toencapsulate the second message as a data payload in a third SMTP messageand to provide an address header for the third SMTP message for themobile device; a sixth program construct adapted to receive a userrequest transmitted using a fourth protocol, wherein the fourth protocolis a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or InternetMessage Access Protocol (IMAP); and a seventh program construct adapted,in response to the user request, to transfer the first message fortransmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device.Additional program constructs, and variations of such programconstructs, will be apparent to those of skill in the art, forperformance of the various methodologies of the present invention.

These and additional embodiments are discussed in greater detail below.Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention willbecome readily apparent from the following detailed description of theinvention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims and from theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will bemore readily appreciated upon reference to the following disclosure whenconsidered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and exampleswhich form a portion of the specification, in which:

FIG. (or “FIG.”) 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary systemembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. (or “FIG.”) 2 is a block and flow diagram illustrating, in greaterdetail, an exemplary system embodiment and exemplary messaging flows inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. (or “FIG.”) 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplaryapparatus embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. (or “FIG.”) 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a first exemplarymethod embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. (or “FIG.”) 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a second exemplarymethod embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

While the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in manydifferent forms, there are shown in the drawings and will be describedherein in detail specific examples and embodiments thereof, with theunderstanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as anexemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intendedto limit the invention to the specific examples and embodimentsillustrated, and that numerous variations or modifications from thedescribed embodiments may be possible and are considered equivalent.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system 105embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.FIG. 2 is a block and flow diagram illustrating, in greater detail, anexemplary system 205 embodiment and exemplary messaging flows inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention. As illustratedin FIGS. 1 and 2, the systems 105 and 205 each comprise a first protocolto second protocol conversion system (“protocol conversion system”) 100,and may also include a mobile switching center (“MSC”) 150, a datamessage and data packet service center 145, and various gateways 140.The first protocol to second protocol conversion system 100 may beembodied as a stand-alone server or as a plurality of servers, such asone or more of servers 125 (or 125A, 125B, 125D) and the separatelyillustrated server 125C, discussed below, or as any other type ofprocessing device, now known or which becomes known in the art. Asillustrated, the first protocol to second protocol conversion system 100is incorporated within a server 125C adapted to perform the methodologyof the present invention. Equivalently, the first protocol to secondprotocol conversion system 100 may be embodied within any other type ofserver, workstation or computer, such as a web server 125B or an emailserver 125A, or within telecommunication or mobile network equipmentsuch as MSCs 150, gateways 140, data message and data packet servicecenter 145, and so on, and all such variations are within the scope ofthe present invention.

The gateways 140 are illustrated generally as gateway 140 and, moreparticularly, as a first-to-second protocol gateway 140A. Alsoillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are a plurality of computers or otherclient devices 110, coupled through one or more servers 125 (such asemail and web servers) and routers 120 to the Internet 115 or otherpacket-based network (such as an Ethernet, a local area network (“LAN”),a wide area network (“WAN”), or other network such as a metropolitanarea network, not separately illustrated). (For ease of reference, whilesuch routers 120 are not separately illustrated in FIG. 2, theirpresence and operation is implicit and will be understood as such bythose of skill in the art.) For example, one of the various servers 125,illustrated as server 125A, may be a corporate email server (such asprovided by a business) or may be an Internet email server (such as froman Internet Service Provider (“ISP”)). In addition, the various servers125 include web servers (illustrated as server 125B), for provision ofweb pages, as known in the art. Similarly, mobile devices such as mobilecomputers or other mobile client devices 135 may also be coupled to thevarious networks such as Internet 115 through one or more wirelessservers 130, which may include either or both email and web services(which may comprise a server 125 with additional wireless capability,such as Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11 capability, for example).

System users may generate and receive emails on these various clientdevices 110 and 135 (e.g., computers or other network communicationclient devices), and further, may customize or otherwise configure andprovide user preferences for the various systems of the presentinvention, as discussed in greater detail below. For example, a user mayconfigure user preferences through a web-based interface providedthrough web server 125B, with the user configuration information andpreferences stored in a database 195, which is also accessible by theprotocol conversion system 100.

Other illustrated networks 190, such as a public switched telephonenetwork (“PSTN”), are typically utilized for circuit-switched voice anddata transmission, and are coupled to MSCs 150 for wirelesscommunication (via wireless base stations 155) with mobile units 160,such as cellular telephones and PDAs, as known in the art. For suchmobile communications, the service provider generally tracks thelocation of a mobile unit 160, at any given time, through a homelocation register (“HLR”) 165 and visitor location register (“VLR”) 170,also as known in the art. In addition, other intelligent network devicesmay also be included, such as an intelligent peripheral (“IP”) 180, aservice control point (“SCP”) 185, a service node (“SN”) 175, also asknown in the art. Depending upon the selected embodiment, the varioussystems of the present invention may be incorporated into suchintelligent network devices, in addition to separate devices such as thefirst protocol to second protocol conversion system 100, servers 125, orother telecommunication equipment discussed above.

As discussed in greater detail below, a user will configure the emailnotification system of the present invention, for their personalpreferences, for example, typically through an Internet 115 connectionfrom a user's computer (client 110) to a web server 125B, such asthrough an Internet browser, or will provide such configuration througha representative of a service provider (such as through a voicecommunication), and so on. This configuration of the user's account andpreferences is stored in database 195, and may occur upon establishmentof an account, or may be adapted or changed at any time, particularly asthe user has utilized the systems 105 or 205 and has determined theirneeds and preferences based upon actual usage experience. Such web-basedconfiguration of the user's account and preferences is illustrated asfull duplex communications 210 in FIG. 2.

In addition, such configuration of user preferences can be“self-changing” according to user-specified criteria. For example, withrespect to time and date, a user may specify a first set of preferencesfor the work week, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., such that afirst type of email notifications are provided, while a second type ofemail notifications are provided in the evenings and balance of the day.Similarly, with respect to location, different types or sets of emailnotifications may be transmitted (or not transmitted), for example,based upon global positioning system (“GPS”) information, home region orroaming locations (e.g., to receive only work-related email whileroaming in particular locations). Also for example, user preferences mayinclude different types of treatments based upon keywords or sources ofemail, such as sending news updates from Google which have the keyword“Giants” in the title or body.

The user will also configure their email account(s) to be forwarded to adesignated email server 125C, utilized to provide the various emails andemail notifications in accordance with the present invention, such as aMailSite® server. (Such forwarding may be unnecessary when the user'swireless communication service provider is also their email or Internetservice provider.) For example, the user may configure their corporateand/or personal email accounts to forward all or some of their email toserver 125C, such as emails only from certain senders and/or emailswhich are not from other senders, or for different days and timeperiods. In addition, regardless of any forwarding capability, email forthe user may be sent directly to the server 125C, as a primary account,such as email directed to user@mailsite.com. Similarly, if the usercannot configure their email account to be partially or variablyforwarded, such as to forward emails from particular senders and/or notfrom other senders, such configuration is available directly through theemail notification system of the present invention, such as the variousconfigurations discussed above.

For example, a user may configure his or her system 105, 205 preferencesbased upon time, date, and sender, such as to forward certain types ofemails during the business week and during business hours, and toforward personal email during evenings and weekends. A user mayconfigure his or her system 105, 205 preferences based upon keywords orother content, types of attachments, sender locations (through a reversedatabase lookup), and so on. Also for example, the user may choose thatemails with certain types of attachments, such as photographs, video orgraphics, or from certain locations (e.g., San Francisco), are not to beforwarded, while other emails having certain keywords or FROM fields(e.g., “Phone Bill”) are to be forwarded. The user may configure theirsystem preferences based on the forwarded account, such as for sendingemail notifications for forwarded corporate emails in a certain timeperiod of the day and for sending email notifications for forwardedpersonal account emails in another, second time period of the day. Asanother example, a user may customize their account by only forwardingemails sent specifically to them, and not to other people, such as toavoid “CC” emails to their direct reporting employees. As yet additionalexamples, a user may configure his or her system preferences to onlyforward emails having an unsolicited email (“spam”) score below apredetermined threshold. Such customization may be accomplished throughuser selections available with the various sieve rules and filtersprovided in the exemplary embodiments, discussed below.

It should be noted that the ability of the user to add, subtract, andotherwise modify such rules or filters for email notificationtransmission (as well as provide specific triggering criteria) is aunique capability of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.In addition, as illustrated, the user may configure their rules tomodify other rules or spawn new rules.

Email applications typically utilize a first protocol, referred to asthe Simple Mail Transport Protocol (“SMTP”) with its various extensionsand modifications, such as Extended SMTP (ESMTP) (collectively “SMTP”).In accordance with the present invention, a first email messagetransmitted using a first protocol (e.g., SMTP) will be forwarded ordirectly transmitted to server 125C (illustrated as communication 215),such as from server 125B or 125D or directly from computer/client 110B.The first protocol to second protocol conversion system 100 (withinserver 125C), in accordance with the present invention, will modify andconvert the first message having the first protocol into a secondmessage having a second protocol, such as the Short Message Service(“SMS”) protocol provided in mobile communications. In addition to SMS,depending upon the selected embodiment and service provider, othersecond protocols may also be utilized, such as IM, or CallerIdentification (“Caller ID”, such as by spoofing the Caller ID totransport the second message), or other legacy or limited capacitychannels usually reserved for system signaling rather than data or voicetransport. Depending upon user configurations and preferences, a first,SMTP email message will be processed and further modified by selectingand extracting certain fields from the first message, which will then betransformed into a second message, such as an SMS message. In selectedembodiments, this SMS message may be transmitted directly to the user'smobile unit 160. If this second (SMS) message is not to be transmitteddirectly to the user, such as when the protocol conversion system 100 isnot directly coupled to or co-located with an MSC 150, data message anddata packet service center 145, or base station 155, the second messagewill be encapsulated (or tunneled) as a data payload in a third messageusing another, third protocol, which may be the same protocol as thefirst protocol (SMTP) or may be a different protocol, such as HTTP, XML,SIMPLE, IRC, XMPP or IM. In various exemplary embodiments, the second(SMS) message is encapsulated in a third (SMTP) message, such that thethird protocol is the same as the first protocol, and transmitted(communication 220) to a first-to-second protocol gateway 140A, such asan SMTP-to-SMS gateway. In accordance with the present invention, such afirst-to-second protocol gateway 140A is configured to extract thesecond SMS message from the payload of the third SMTP message, forsubsequent wireless transmission to the user's mobile unit 160A(illustrated as communication legs 225, 225A). Additional transmissionmeans for the second and/or third messages are discussed below.

In the exemplary embodiments, the second message generally contains asubset of (and significantly less than) the data of the original, firstemail message. For example, when utilizing SMS, the second message willhave a defined, limited capacity, such as up to 190 bytes (orcharacters), depending upon the encoding and access method. A typicalemail may include considerably more bytes/characters in just the emailenvelope or email header information, without considering thesubstantive bytes of the message body. In addition, such envelopeinformation and much of the header information is typically meaninglessto an email subscriber. If such information is simply transmitted to theuser, without more, the user will generally have no reasonable basis todetermine whether the entire email should be examined (through theuser-transparent pull operation, discussed below). As a consequence, inaccordance with the present invention, predetermined and generallymeaningful information is extracted from the original (first) emailmessage, by the protocol conversion system 100, to enable the user tomake such determinations when the second (SMS) message is received bythe mobile unit 160.

More particularly, certain user-defined or default fields are extractedfrom the original (first) email message by the first protocol to secondprotocol conversion system 100, such as the “FROM” field, the “TO”field, the “DATE” field, the “SIZE” field, the “SUBJECT” field, and ifremaining second message capacity is available, any and all bytes orcharacters from the “BODY” field up to the remaining capacity of thesecond SMS message. Other fields for inclusion within the second (SMS)message are also available, depending upon the selected embodiment anduser preferences, including without limitation, the type, name, numberand size of any attachments (e.g., Excel files, Word files, audio files,MP3 files, JPEG files, PowerPoint files, PDF files, HTML files, and soon); additional tags, messages, banners or insertions, such as “spam”scores, discussed below; and other fields, such as the “CC” field oremail group designations. New tags may also be created, such as a tagwhich summarizes the email, or a tag which compresses the email or itsattachments (e.g., compresses a JPEG photograph to a thumbnail size), ortags which provide a summary or extraction of the most frequent orunique keywords in the email body. These extracted fields are thenassembled by the protocol conversion system 100 into the second (SMS)message.

A particular advantage of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention is that a useful and meaningful subset of information isextracted and provided in a specialized message to the user, therebyproviding enough information to effectively simulate a push operation ofan entire email. In addition, such a simulated email push (1) isprovided over a highly limited capacity channel (such as SMS) which isavailable in current mobile communications infrastructures; (2) uses aprotocol and messaging type which is available to virtually all mobileunits 160 such as legacy cellular telephones; and (3) in contrast to theprior art, does not require any specialized wireless infrastructures,use of higher capacity data channels, or use of specialized mobiledevices, such as Blackberry devices.

Other advantages of the exemplary embodiments of the present inventioninclude direct feedback from the mobile unit 160, which may also beutilized to modify or add to the various email notification rules, andmay be updated and stored in the database 195. For example, thesubscriber's mobile unit 160 may provide feedback concerning itsremaining free memory capacity. When that capacity is reduced to apredetermined threshold, different types of email notifications andattachments may or may not be transmitted (e.g., transmitting emailnotifications without any attachments). Conversely, when additionalcapacity is restored, such as by deleting previous email notificationsfrom memory, another update may be transmitted by the mobile unit 160for updating and storing in the database 195, to resume transmission ofemail notifications (or larger emails) with attachments or other largefiles.

Which fields are selected, as indicated above, may be specified by theuser through configuration of their account or may be selectedautomatically (as default fields, for example, when the user has notdesignated particular preferences). In addition to other processesdiscussed below, the first protocol to second protocol conversion system100 performs one or more database 195 lookup operations, to obtain suchconfigurations, and to determine the mobile directory number (mobile DN)of the user, for use in subsequent wireless transmission of the second(SMS) message to the corresponding mobile unit 160 of the user,illustrated as mobile unit 160A. This mobile DN is then utilized eitherto directly transmit the second (SMS) message to the mobile unit 160A,or as part of the header information in encapsulating the second (SMS)message into a third message (e.g., a third SMTP message), such as inheader information ToMobileDN@WirelessCarrier.com.

The second (SMS) message formed in accordance with the invention, (whichmay be encapsulated in a third message and extracted by thefirst-to-second protocol gateway 140A (e.g., an SMTP-to-SMS gateway) orwhich may be transmitted directly to an MSC 150 or a base station 155),is then transmitted to the corresponding mobile unit 160 (illustratedfor example as communication legs 225 in FIG. 2), via an MSC 150, basestation 155, and any other intervening network devices utilized by thewireless communication service provider (such as a short message servicecenter (“SMSC”) 280, which may be stand-alone or which may be includedwithin data message and data packet service center 145 (illustrated ascommunication leg 225A). Other routing and transmission choices are alsoavailable to service providers, are considered equivalent and alsowithin the scope of the present invention (e.g., transmission through IP180 or SN 175, for example). In exemplary embodiments, the second (SMS)message is typically transmitted when the mobile unit 160A is notengaged in another activity, such as to avoid an interruption during avoice communication session. When such other activity has ended orshortly thereafter, or when the mobile unit 160 is otherwise inactive,the second (SMS) message is generally transmitted by the base station155. In addition, once a second (SMS) message has been transmitted tothe mobile unit 160, additional content-based notifications may or maynot be sent for a predetermined period of time, depending upon theselected embodiment, so that a user is not overwhelmed with suchnotifications, particularly while engaged in another activity.

The receipt of the second (SMS) message by the mobile unit 160 typicallyawakens or activates a background application or provides an interruptto an interrupt driven application or task (or other applicationtrigger) to the mobile unit 160A, launching an application to parse anddisplay the second message on the screen or other user interface of themobile unit 160, and to request a user response. (If a message isreceived by the mobile unit 160A which is not a second (SMS) messageformed in accordance with the invention, the mobile unit 160A maydisplay that message or resume a sleep mode, depending upon how theindividual mobile unit 160A may be configured.) For example, inexemplary embodiments, receipt of the second message by the mobile unitwill launch a Java-enabled, Brew-enabled, or other type of program (suchas the Eudora email program from Qualcomm or the Outlook email programfrom Microsoft), to provide the text and/or graphics display of thesecond message, and further display a link or button, for the user toselect (or actuate) to receive the balance of the complete, originalemail message as a transparent pull operation. More specifically, fromthe point of view of the user/subscriber, the user has received an emailpush, and he/she may then determine whether to see any remaining balanceof the email, in a pull operation which is transparent to the user. Whenthe user does not request the complete email by selecting or actuating adisplayed link or actuating a predetermined button on the mobile unit160A, the application running on the mobile unit 160A will typicallytime out (after a predetermined period of time has elapsed) and resume asleep mode, or continue with any other activity, such as continuing witha voice communication session.

When the user does request the complete email, a message is transmittedfrom the mobile unit 160A (via base station 155 and MSC 150) to theserver 125C (referred to as a “fourth message”, to distinguish the othermessage transmissions), requesting the transmission of the completeemail to the mobile unit 160, illustrated as communication legs 230 (and230A, 230B) in FIG. 2. Such a communication 230 may be provided betweenor among any of a plurality of paths and devices, such as through thegateway 140A (illustrated separately as communication leg 230A), throughother gateways 140, through the data message and data packet servicecenter 145 (illustrated separately as communication leg 230B), throughSMSC 280 (illustrated separately as communication leg 230C), orotherwise directly through the Internet 115, with all such variationswithin the scope of the present invention. For example, the fourthmessage may be an Internet Message Access Protocol (“IMAP”) message or aPost Office Protocol Version 3 (“POP3”) message transmitted using awireless data protocol (such as GPRS), may be an SMS message which isthen converted within the network to an IMAP or POP3 message (such as inthe data message and data packet service center 145, the first-to-secondprotocol gateway 140A, or in another intelligent network device), or maybe another type of message.

With the IMAP or POP3 session opened to the server 125C, such as aMailSite® server, the requested email is matched with the originalmessage stored at the server 125C. The requested email is then providedby server 125C, illustrated as communication 235 (also via variouscommunication legs 235A or 235B, depending upon the selectedembodiment), and may have any of various forms, also depending upon theselected embodiment and devices utilized, such as SMTP, HTTP, etc. Therequested email may also be converted into different forms using any ofa plurality of protocols, also depending upon the selected embodimentand devices utilized, such as whether the service provider will utilizeda gateway 140, data message and data packet service center 145, etc. Therequested email may then be converted and transmitted to the mobile unit160A, typically utilizing a third or fourth protocol, such as a wirelessdata transmission protocol (e.g., GPRS), illustrated as communication240. For example, the requested email may be transmitted using timeand/or frequency division multiplexing, frequency division multipleaccess, or code division multiple access. In many applications operatingon the user's mobile unit 160A, any HTML is stripped from the originalemail message, which is then provided as plain text to the applicationon the mobile unit, which is then displayed to the user incrementally,depending upon the amount of information the user's mobile unit 160A iscapable of displaying. The user may also respond to the displayed email,such as with a reply, reply all, forward, or may cancel the viewing,with the original email retained on the server 125C. In addition, whenthe message has been transmitted using IMAP, the message is generallyretained on the server 125C, and also may be downloaded on additionaloccasions.

As a consequence, to a user, the second message provides a content-basedemail notification, having significant and meaningful information forthe user, and which appears as and simulates an email push operationfrom the service provider, but which is provided to a mobile unit 160which does not have such message push capability, and is provided by aninfrastructure which may or may not have such message push capability.In response, when the user requests what appears to be the balance ofthe email (which is provided as the complete email in communication legs235), the user transparently performs a pull operation, generating anIMAP or other message to retrieve the complete email. This has also beenaccomplished without requiring the user to constantly or periodicallypoll or query an email server, thereby saving and conservingconsiderable network resources and available bandwidth, and saving andconserving power, battery life, and processor cycles.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary apparatus 300embodiment and system 305 embodiment in accordance with the teachings ofthe present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the apparatus 300comprises a processor 325, a network interface 315, and a memory 320,with the system 305 further comprising the data repository 310. Such anapparatus 300, as discussed above, may be included within or comprise afirst protocol to second protocol conversion system 100 and/or a server125, such as server 125C, or included within or comprise the othernetwork or communications equipment discussed above.

In the apparatus 300, the network interface 315 may be implemented asknown or may become known in the art, to provide data communication andsignaling between, first, the processor 325, memory 320 and/or datarepository 310, and second, a communication channel, which may bewireless, optical or wireline, using any applicable standard ortechnology. For example, the network interface 315 may provide allsignaling and physical interface functions, such as impedance matching,data input and data output between external communication lines orchannels (e.g., Ethernet, T1 or ISDN lines) coupled to a network (suchas Internet 115), and internal server or computer communication busses(e.g., one of the various PCI or USB busses), for example and withoutlimitation. In addition, depending upon the selected embodiment, thenetwork interface 315 (or the processor 325) may also be utilized toprovide data link layer and media access control functionality.

The memory 320 (which may include a data repository (or database) 330),and the data repository (or database) 310, may be embodied in any numberof forms, including within any computer or other machine-readable datastorage medium, memory device or other storage or communication devicefor storage or communication of information such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data, currentlyknown or which becomes available in the future, including, but notlimited to, a magnetic hard drive, an optical drive, a magnetic disk ortape drive, a hard disk drive, other machine-readable storage or memorymedia such as a floppy disk, a CDROM, a CD-RW, digital versatile disk(DVD) or other optical memory, a memory integrated circuit (“IC”), ormemory portion of an integrated circuit (such as the resident memorywithin a processor IC), whether volatile or non-volatile, whetherremovable or non-removable, including without limitation RAM, FLASH,DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, FeRAM, ROM, EPROM or E²PROM, or any other typeof memory, storage medium, or data storage apparatus or circuit, whichis known or which becomes known, depending upon the selected embodiment.In addition, such computer readable media includes any form ofcommunication media which embodies computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules or other data in a data signal or modulatedsignal, such as an electromagnetic or optical carrier wave or othertransport mechanism, including any information delivery media, which mayencode data or other information in a signal, wired or wirelessly,including electromagnetic, optical, acoustic, RF or infrared signals,and so on.

The apparatus 300 further includes one or more processors 325, adaptedto perform the functionality discussed above and discussed in greaterdetail below. As the term processor is used herein, a processor 325 mayinclude use of a single integrated circuit (“IC”), or may include use ofa plurality of integrated circuits or other components connected,arranged or grouped together, such as microprocessors, digital signalprocessors (“DSPs”), parallel processors, multiple core processors,custom ICs, application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), fieldprogrammable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), adaptive computing ICs, associatedmemory (such as RAM, DRAM and ROM), and other ICs and components. As aconsequence, as used herein, the term processor should be understood toequivalently mean and include a single IC, or arrangement of custom ICs,ASICs, processors, microprocessors, controllers, FPGAs, adaptivecomputing ICs, or some other grouping of integrated circuits whichperform the functions discussed below, with associated memory, such asmicroprocessor memory or additional RAM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, ROM,EPROM or E²PROM. A processor (such as processor 325), with itsassociated memory, may be adapted or configured (via programming, FPGAinterconnection, or hard-wiring) to perform the methodology of theinvention, as discussed above and as further discussed below. Forexample, the methodology may be programmed and stored, in a processor325 with its associated memory (and/or memory 320) and other equivalentcomponents, as a set of program instructions (or equivalentconfiguration or other program) for subsequent execution when theprocessor is operative (i.e., powered on and functioning). Equivalently,when the processor 325 may implemented in whole or part as FPGAs, customICs and/or ASICs, the FPGAs, custom ICs or ASICs also may be designed,configured and/or hard-wired to implement the methodology of theinvention. For example, the processor 325 may implemented as anarrangement of microprocessors, DSPs and/or ASICs, collectively referredto as a “processor”, which are respectively programmed, designed,adapted or configured to implement the methodology of the invention, inconjunction with one or more databases (310, 330) or memory 320.

As indicated above, the processor 325 is programmed, using software anddata structures of the invention, for example, to perform themethodology of the present invention. As a consequence, the system andmethod of the present invention may be embodied as software whichprovides such programming, such as a set of instructions and/or metadataembodied within a computer (or other machine) readable medium, discussedabove. In addition, metadata may also be utilized to define the variousdata structures of database 195, such as to store user preferences andconfigurations.

More generally, the system, methods, apparatus and programs of thepresent invention may be embodied in any number of forms, such as withinany type of server 125, within a processor 325, within amachine-readable media, within a computer network, within an adaptivecomputing device, or within any other form of computing or other systemused to create or contain source code, including the various processorsand computer or other machine-readable media mentioned above. Suchsource code further may be compiled into some form of instructions orobject code (including assembly language instructions or configurationinformation). The software, source code or metadata of the presentinvention may be embodied as any type of source code, such as C, C++,Java, Brew, SQL and its variations (e.g., SQL 99 or proprietary versionsof SQL), DB2, XML, Oracle, or any other type of programming languagewhich performs the functionality discussed herein, including varioushardware definition languages (e.g., Verilog, HDL), when embodied as anASIC. As a consequence, a “construct”, “program construct”, “softwareconstruct” or “software”, as used herein, means and refers to anyprogramming language, of any kind, with any syntax or signatures, whichprovides or can be interpreted to provide the associated functionalityor methodology specified (when instantiated or loaded into a processoror computer and executed, including the server 125 or processor 325, forexample).

The software, metadata, or other source code of the present inventionand any resulting bit file (object code or configuration bit sequence)may be embodied within any tangible storage medium, such as any of thecomputer or other machine-readable data storage media, ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules orother data, such as discussed above with respect to the memory 320,e.g., a floppy disk, a CDROM, a CD-RW, a magnetic hard drive, an opticaldrive, or any other type of data storage apparatus or medium, asmentioned above.

The processor 325, typically included within a server 125 embodiment(such as server 125C), implements functionality which may be looselydivided into three groups: (1) user and account authentication, as a“front end” agent (335); (2) security (340) and filtering (345), as a“relay” agent 350; and (3) as a “delivery” agent (355), a mail listprocessor or engine (360) and a sieve rule processor or engine 365(implementing field and information selection (370), second protocolmessage generation (375), and first (or third) protocol messagegeneration (380)). Again, as mentioned above, the inclusion (orexclusion) and execution of these various functions may be determinedthrough user configuration and preference selection, by default when nopreferences have been indicated, or through updating and rulemodification, such as through feedback from a mobile unit 160. Inaddition, in the exemplary embodiments, this functionality is providedas modular units, allowing the inclusion or exclusion of a particularfunction, and allowing the incorporation of new functionality, withoutaffecting other functions. Similarly, various functions are alsoimplemented utilizing database lookups, allowing functional revisionswithout changes in architecture or system programming or other coding.For example, new virus definitions may be added into databases 310, 330or memory 320, without reprogramming. Similarly, user defined andupdated rules may be added and changed in the databases 310, 330 ormemory 320, also without reprogramming.

When a first email message has arrived at the apparatus 300, such as aserver 125C, either as direct or forwarded email, the processor 325 willperform front end operations, such as account verification or otherauthentication, to determine that the addressed email is for a user orsubscriber in good standing, typically through various database (310,330) look up operations. When such email has been verified orauthenticated, the email is passed to the relay agent 350, as the firstof two “back end” processes; otherwise, the email simply may bediscarded.

The processing steps performed by the relay agent 350 of the processor325 are security (340) and filtering (345), both of which may alsorequire various database (310, 330) look up operations, and which may beselectively included and performed in any of various orders, staticallyor dynamically. Depending upon the user or default preferences, theoutcomes from these processes may be modification, editing, redirecting,annotating, quarantining, delivering, or deletion (rejection) of thefirst (SMTP) email message. The various security 340 processing layersmay be implemented as known or becomes known in the art and may includeor comprise, without limitation, Directory Harvest Attack Protection(DHAP); Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v.3); Transport Layer Security (TLSand TLS v. 1); white listing (allowing messages from selected sources);black listing (deleting messages from selected sources); Real-timeBlacklist Lookup; a firewall; and any user-defined security processes(e.g., reverse DNS (domain name server or service), limiting SMTP tolocal IP addresses, blocking specific hosts or IP addresses, blockingspecific FROM addresses, validation of source domains, etc.). Forexample, an encrypted message may be decrypted, for subsequent fieldselection to formulate the second (SMS) message. Those email messageswhich have passed any applicable security checks or which have beenmodified by the security layers are then passed to the filtering 345functionality.

One or more filters 345 are implemented in processor 325, which maymodify, edit, delete (reject), add, redirect, archive, log or quarantinethe email. In exemplary embodiments, the various filters 345 may also beimplemented with sieve rule functionality, to provide both adetermination of an occurrence of an event, such as determining that agiven email is spam (an unwanted email from an unsolicited source orfrom a source having no pre-existing relationship with theuser/subscriber), followed by performance of an activity or action inresponse to that determination, such as deleting or rejecting the email.Various exemplary filters 345 which may be selectively included andperformed in any of various orders, statically or dynamically, mayinclude, as examples and without limitation, (1) an anti-spam filter;(2) sieve rules; (3) anti-virus filters; and (4) banner or taginsertion. The various tags or scores which may be inserted in themessage during processing may be utilized for analysis or actions byanother process (such as a sieve rule) or may be included within thesecond (SMS) message for transmission to the mobile unit 160 of theparticular user.

For example, in an exemplary embodiment, the anti-spam filter processesthe email message envelope, header and/or text in the message body, plusany attachments, and then generates a spam score and adds the spam scoreas a tag to the first (SMTP) message during processing. This spam scoretag may then may be utilized by a subsequent sieve rule to delete themessage or, if not deleted, transmitted to the mobile unit, or may beutilized by the user to determine whether to download the completemessage. In exemplary embodiments, anti-spam filtering may includeheuristics, profiles, keywords, white lists, and black lists, forexample, with a spam score calculated based on pattern matching, spamdefinitions, and heuristic analysis. The ability of the filters andsieve rules to create new tags allows other sieve rules to look for andmake decisions on these tags, such as file sizes, attachment (orextension) types, amount of free memory on the mobile unit 160, inaddition to such spam scores.

Various sieve rules are also implemented in exemplary embodiments, andmay be embodied using sieve scripts, such as those proposed as astandard in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 3028. Utilizingvarious matching rules (filters) applied to one or more of the messageenvelope, header, body, and message tags (created by previous filtersand processes of the invention), the various sieve scripts can discard(reject), redirect, modify, edit, file, quarantine, archive, log,annotate or add to the email. For example, various emails meetingpredetermined criteria may be archived or logged to provide anadditional record of received email messages, such as for reporting,privacy and compliance requirements, e.g., various statutes (andaccompanying regulations) such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, theHealth Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (privacy ofhealth records), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) (privacy of nonpublicpersonal and financial records). Following application of such sieverules, the message is processed using anti-virus filters, to check forviruses, worms or other destructive programs or agents in the email orany attachments.

Another filter utilized in the exemplary embodiments is an editing or“banner” filter, which may be utilized to insert or delete any selectedtext or graphics into the email message. For example, an advertisementor a service provider or vendor signature may be inserted into theemail. Such an editing filter may also delete various banners, otheradvertisements, or other information, such as based upon userpreferences and configurations. In addition, the editing filter mayperform combinations of such activities, such as deleting certaininformation and inserting new information. User-defined filters may alsobe implemented. Following filtering, the partially processed first emailmessage is transferred to the delivery agent 355 for additionalprocessing, or to a buffer (or spooler), such as a buffer in memory 320or in processor 325, when the delivery agent 355 is unavailable.

Processing of the email message by the delivery agent 355 includesseveral functions in the exemplary embodiments, which may be selectivelyimplemented, embodied in a plurality of ways, and performed in a widevariety of orders, dynamically and statically, with all such variationsconsidered equivalent and within the scope of the present invention.Again, as mentioned above, performance of these various processes mayalso include various memory 320 and database 310, 330 accesses andlookups for information retrieval, such as user preferences and definedrules. Following the processes of the relay agent 350, a mail listprocessor 360 is utilized to expand or contract the mailing list of theparticular email, such as adding or deleting recipients. The partiallyprocessed email message is then transferred to the sieve rule processor365, which implements specialized or predetermined rules, in accordancewith the present invention, to create and encapsulate the second (SMS)message, for subsequent transmission to the mobile unit 160. Thesevarious rules may be stored in memory 320 and/or database 310, 330,accessed accordingly, and utilized to select and operate upon thevarious fields of the first email message (as partially processed). Thisuse of sieve rules provides tremendous flexibility in processing thefirst message and creating the second message, including enabling rathercomplicated decision processes. In addition, this use of sieve rulefunctionality to create an SMS or other second message is, in itself, anovel combination. While implemented as a sieve rule processor 365 inthe exemplary embodiments, those of skill in the art will recognize thatmyriad other processing embodiments are available to extract, query, andgenerate a second (SMS) message, and all are within the scope of thepresent invention.

In order to construct the second (SMS) message, the sieve rule processor365 selects the “TO” field of the message and performs a memory 320and/or database 310, 330 query or lookup, to obtain the user's SMSaddress, such as the mobile directory number (mobile DN) and wirelesscarrier (or service provider) for the user's mobile unit 160, such as anSMS address of ToMobileDN@WirelessCarrier.com. Those of skill in the artwill recognize that any of a plurality of fields of the first emailmessage may be utilized for database 310, 330 queries to obtain ordownload one or more customized or specialized rule(s) for the selectedemail to be processed. The sieve rule processor 365 will then utilizethe corresponding rule(s) to further process the first (partiallyprocessed) email message, using any of a plurality of transformations,to form the second (SMS) message. Using corresponding sieve rules, whichmay be user-defined, configured, updated, adapted or default rules, thesieve rule processor 365 extracts a meaningful subset of informationfrom the original or first (partially processed) email message andtransforms the information into a second message having a second,different protocol, such as transforming the SMTP message into a SMSmessage. As indicated above, the sieve rule processor 365 will applyselected sieve rules of a plurality of sieve rules, extractinginformation (field and information selection process 370) from variousfields of the original or forwarded (and partially processed) email,such as the information in the “FROM” field; the “TO” field; the “DATE”field; the “SIZE” field; the “SUBJECT” field; any and all bytes orcharacters from the “BODY” field up to the remaining capacity of thesecond SMS message; the type, name, number and size of any attachments;additional tags, messages, banners or insertions, such as “spam” scores;and other fields, such as the “CC” field or email group designations. Inaddition, other types of rules or preferences discussed above, such asselective forwarding rules based on sender, day of the week, time ofday, and so on, may also be implemented using the sieve rule processor365.

In accordance with the present invention, the various extracted fieldsand other information will be assembled, by the second protocol messagegenerator 375 of the sieve rule processor 365, to form the second (SMS)message, with such assembly varying based upon a wide variety offactors, including how the first message was transmitted to the server125C. For example, in a forwarded email message, both the FROM field andthe TO fields will designate the user/subscriber; accordingly, variousrules or processes may be implemented to extract the sender informationfrom the original FROM field of the original email. Conversely, in anemail message transmitted directly to the server 125C, such as touser@mailsite.com, the FROM field (if not spam) will properly designatethe sender of the email. As a consequence, the sieve rule processor 365implements a plurality of corresponding rules or processes, extractingor copying selected and predetermined information from the original orforwarded (and partially processed) email, followed by placing orwriting that extracted information into a predetermined field of thesecond (SMS) message. As indicated above, those predetermined fields maybe user-determined or provided by default, and may be updated,self-changing and adapted over time. In addition, the sieve ruleprocessor 365 may also add or insert the various tags, banners andscores mentioned above, and add other information, such as emailpriority, status (e.g., confidential), and so on. For example, variousservice providers and gateways (e.g., a gateway 140A) may need certaininformation which may be included as tags, for authorization of thesecond message and for billing purposes.

As a result, a second (SMS) message has been created by the sieve ruleprocessor 365, which has a much smaller size (or lower capacity) thanthe original email message, and which may be transmitted to the user'smobile unit 160A. The second (SMS) message may be provided as acontent-based notification, a simulated push, of the larger, originalemail, without any user action, polling or querying from the user'smobile unit 160A. In addition, because significant and meaningfulinformation was differentially selected for inclusion in or to comprisethe second (SMS) message, in many instances, the second (SMS) messagemay itself be sufficient, with no user-determined pull operation neededfor the complete, original email.

As indicated above, depending upon the location of the server 125C, thesecond (SMS) message may be transferred directly to a base station 155and transmitted to the user's mobile unit 160A. Those of skill in theart will recognize that a wide variety of mechanisms are available totransmit the second (SMS) message to a remotely located base station155. Under other circumstances, such as when the server 125C is locatedremotely from the serving MSC 150 or base station 155, which may occurwhen the server 125C is provided by a vendor other than the wirelesscarrier, or when the user's mobile unit 160A has roamed into a visitingarea, the second (SMS) message will need to be transmitted to the basestation 155 through a network, either a packet-based network such asinternet 115 or a circuit-switched (PSTN) network 190. In exemplaryembodiments, the second message is encapsulated by the processor 325(sieve rule processor 365) as a payload in third message, using another(third) protocol (such as SMTP, HTTP, XML, SIMPLE, IRC, XMPP or IM,etc.) and transmitted over the internet 115 to the wireless carrier,using the user's mobile directory number and wireless carrierinformation. More specifically, when the first protocol is also to beutilized for the third message, the first protocol message generator 380encapsulates the second (SMS) message in a third, SMTP message,addressed to User'sMobileDN@WirelessCarrier.com, which is thentransferred to the network interface 315 for transmission over a datapacket channel (internet 115). In the event other, third protocols areto be utilized, the message generator 380 will be configuredaccordingly, to encapsulate the second message in a third message havingthe selected, third protocol, such as the various protocols mentionedabove.

In an exemplary embodiment, the third (SMTP) message, encapsulating thesecond (SMS) message, is then transmitted to the base station 155 viathe first-to-second protocol (SMTP-to-SMS) gateway 140A.Correspondingly, the first-to-second protocol (SMTP-to-SMS) gateway 140Ahas been configured or adapted to recognize that this type of emailmessage contains an SMS payload to be transmitted to a user/subscriber.Such a gateway 140A typically has a predefined interface orconfiguration, to recognize such a specially formatted third message andextract proper fields containing the encapsulated second message. Inturn, gateway 140A extracts the second (SMS) message from the body ofthe third (SMTP) message and transfers it to the base station 155 (viatransmission over intervening network devices, such as an MSC 150 andother switching or data transfer centers). Other types of gateways 140(switching centers), data message and data packet service center 145 orother network devices discussed above may also be utilized, dependingupon the protocol selection for the third message, and all areconsidered equivalent and are within the scope of the present invention.The base station 155, in turn, transmits the second (SMS) message to theuser's mobile unit 160A, communication 225, as discussed above.

Those of skill in the art will recognize that the principles of thepresent invention may be extended to other communication systems, suchas voice communications. For example, rather than merely notifying auser of the existence of a voice mail, a content-based notification maybe utilized which includes important information, such as caller nameand caller directory number (Caller I.D.) fields, providing a simulatedvoice mail push operation. In addition, the principles of the presentinvention also may be extended to other, bandwidth limited communicationsystems, such as dial-up (analog modem) connections. For example, when auser is traveling in a remote or rural area, high-speed or highbandwidth data services may not be available; use of the presentinvention would enable such a user to receive important, significantinformation, in a much more compact and efficient form, bypassing theinherent delays and limitations of such systems.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a first exemplary methodembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention,and provides a useful summary of the processing provided by the server125C (with protocol conversion system 100), the apparatus 300 and/orsystem 305. The method begins, start step 400, with reception of a firstmessage having a first protocol, such as a first email message havingthe SMTP protocol. As known in the art, such a first message istypically received through a TCP connection at port 25 of the server125C, or at other designated ports when a plurality of servers 125(e.g., a server farm) are utilized. The method then determines whether acontent-based notification of the first message is to be transmitted tothe user's mobile unit 160A, step 405, utilizing a second protocolhaving an information transmission capacity which is less than theinformation transmission capacity of the first protocol. As discussedabove, such a determination is typically made by the relay agent 350,and may also include the front end authentication process. For example,applying the various security and filtering processes, the method maydetermine whether the email includes a virus, is spam, is from anunwanted sender, etc. When the first message is not to be transmitted instep 405, the method may end, return step 465.

When the first message is to be transmitted in step 405, the methodproceeds to step 410, to extract a subset of information from the firstmessage. The method then creates a second message having a secondprotocol, with the second message containing or comprising the extractedor selected subset of information, step 415.

In a selected embodiment, the method then determines whether wirelesstransmission capability is available for the selected mobile unit 160,step 420, and when so available, the method transmits the secondmessage, step 425, and the method may proceed to step 440. For example,steps 420 and 425 are typically utilized when the server 125C isco-located with a base station 155 or MSC 150 and the selected mobileunit 160 is within its assigned home region. In other embodiments, suchas when a server 125C is located remotely from a base station 155 or MSC150 or the selected mobile unit 160 is out of its assigned home region(i.e., is roaming), such that wireless transmission capability is notavailable for the selected mobile unit 160 in step 420, the methodproceeds to step 430. It should also be noted that the determinationstep 420 may also be omitted in various embodiments, where the locationof the server 125C is known to be remote from such wireless transmissionequipment, such as when provided by a third party vendor and not by thewireless service provider. In addition, more than one encapsulationprotocol may be utilized, depending upon network (115, 190) loads andavailability. For example, load balancing may be utilized to select aprotocol which, when transmitted over the selected network, would resultin either the fastest or least expensive means of transmission to themobile unit 160. Similarly, another protocol may be selected which wouldresult in increased reliability of transmission to the mobile unit 160.

In step 430, the method encapsulates or tunnels the second message intoor as the data payload of a third message having a third protocol, andprovides the third message with corresponding routing or useridentification information. In many instances, the third protocol may bethe same as the first protocol, e.g., SMTP; in other instances, adifferent protocol may be utilized, such as HTTP, XML, SIMPLE, IRC, XMPPor IM. When SMTP is utilized in step 430, the second message isencapsulated as the message body, and the third (SMTP) message isprovided with routing or addressing to the selected user, such asaddressed to User'sMobileDN@WirelessCarrier.com. The third message isthen transmitted (via network interface 315) over a channel, such as theinternet 115, step 435, to a wireless network for extraction of thesecond message from the third message and transmission of the secondmessage to the mobile device.

The method then determines whether a request has been received for thefirst message, such as through an IMAP or POP3 request generated by theselected mobile unit 160, step 440. When no such request has beenreceived, the method waits a first predetermined period of time (steps445 and 450), and returns to step 440, unless a second predeterminedperiod of time has elapsed (a timeout in step 450), in which case themethod may end, return step 465. When a request has been received forthe first message in step 440, the method proceeds to step 455, andmatches the request with the first message. The method then transmitsthe first message, step 460, typically as part of the IMAP or POP3session established in step 440. Following steps 405, 450 or 460, themethod may end, return step 465.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a second exemplary methodembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention,which typically occurs at a selected mobile unit 160, such as a cellulartelephone, as part of the methodology of the present invention. Themethod begins, start step 500, with receipt of a message, such as asecond message or an SMS message, as a content-based notification. Thereceipt of the message typically generates an interrupt or awakens atask or application, step 505. The application then parses and displaysthe (second) message, and requests user input, step 510, such as bydisplaying a link or button. When user input requests a complete messagein step 515, i.e., the balance of the email which may not have beenincorporated into the email notification, the method proceeds to step530. When the user does not request the complete message in step 515, orthe user has indicated that the complete message is not required in step520 (e.g., by affirmatively providing a “no” in response to the link orbutton), or when a predetermined period of time has elapsed (step 525,timeout), the method proceeds to step 550.

When the user has requested a complete message in step 515, the methodgenerates and transmits a request, such as an IMAP or POP3 request, step530. The complete message is then received, step 535, typically using adifferent and higher capacity protocol than the (second) message of step500. The complete message may or may not be the entire email, dependingupon the data capacity of the protocol utilized to transmit the message(for example, it may be limited to a predetermined number of bytes). Themessage is then displayed, step 540. When there are additional messages,step 545, the method returns to step 530. When there are no moremessages in step 545, or following step 525, the method restores thedisplay to its quiescent (e.g., sleep or power saving) mode, step 550,and the method may end, return step 555.

Numerous advantages of the present invention are readily apparent. Theexemplary embodiments create a content-based notification of an emailwhich is transmitted to a mobile device, such as a cellular telephone orPDA, thereby providing a simulated push operation of email to thesedevices which are capable of only pull operations, and using a wirelesstransmission infrastructure which does not have such separate pushcapability or is otherwise limited by bandwidth or service capacity. Theexemplary embodiments utilize available protocols having limitedcapacity channels to provide a notification of an email to the mobiledevice, with the notification having sufficient and meaningfulinformation to enable a user to reasonably determine whether to view acorresponding complete email using a transparent pull operation. Theexemplary embodiments also provide for user customization, such that auser is notified of only those emails which the user has determinedwould be significant in a given period of time.

It is to be understood that this application discloses a system,apparatus, software and method for creating a content-based notificationof an email as a simulated push operation. While the invention isparticularly illustrated and described with reference to exemplaryembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatnumerous variations and modifications in form, details, and applicationsmay be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of thenovel concept of the invention. Some of these various alternativeimplementations are noted in the text. Other changes include, but arenot limited to protocols used for communication between servers anddevices and the specific arrangement of devices. It is to be understoodthat no limitation with respect to the specific methods and apparatusillustrated herein is intended or should be inferred. It is, of course,intended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fallwithin the scope of the claims.

1. A method of creating a content-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols, the method comprising: receiving a first message having a first protocol of the plurality of communication protocols; determining whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided; when the content-based notification is to be provided, extracting a subset of information from the first message; and using the subset of information, creating a second message having a second protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, the second protocol being different than the first protocol, the second message providing the content-based notification of the first message.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: encapsulating the second message as a data payload in a third message having a third protocol; providing an address header for the third message for the mobile device; and transmitting the third message to a wireless network for extraction of the second message from the third message and transmission of the second message to the mobile device.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first protocol is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) or an extension of Simple Mail Transport Protocol, wherein the second protocol is Short Message Service (SMS), and wherein the third protocol is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), an extension of Simple Mail Transport Protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Extensible Markup Language (XML), SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for Instant Messaging and Presence Leverage Extensions (SIMPLE), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), or Instant Messaging (IM).
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided further comprises: authenticating an account of the recipient of the first message.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided further comprises: filtering the first message using at least one security filter of a plurality of security filters, the plurality of security filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: Directory Harvest Attack Protection; Secure Sockets Layer; Transport Layer Security; Real-time Blacklist Lookup; an allowable message list; a prohibited message list; and a user-defined security processes.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided further comprises at least one of the following processes: modifying, rejecting, deleting, redirecting, archiving, logging or quarantining the first message.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: filtering the first message using at least one filter of a plurality of filters, the plurality of filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: an anti-virus filter; an anti-spam filter; a sieve rule filter; an insertion filter; and a user-defined filter.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of extracting the subset of information from the first message further comprises applying a plurality of sieve rule processes.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of extracting the subset of information from the first message further comprises selecting a plurality of fields of the first message, the plurality of fields comprising at least two of the following fields: a “FROM” field; a “TO” field; a “DATE” field; a “SIZE” field; a “SUBJECT” field; a “CC” field; all or a variable portion of a “BODY” field up to a remaining capacity of the second message; an attachment type; an attachment name; a number of attachments; an attachment size; an inserted tag; an inserted message; an inserted banner; an inserted spam score; an email group designation; or a user-defined field.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of creating the second message further comprises differentially selecting the plurality of fields based on whether the first message was transmitted as a message forward or as a direct message.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first protocol has a first information capacity and the second protocol has a second information capacity, and wherein the second information capacity is substantially less than the first information capacity.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second message further comprises a user response indication or link.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: in response to a user request, transferring the first message for transmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user request is transmitted using a fourth protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, and wherein the fourth protocol is a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).
 15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing user access through a web server for user account configuration and user preference determination.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: storing user account configuration and preference information in a database.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of determining whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided further comprises: determining at least one user preference of a plurality of user preferences, the plurality of user preferences comprising at least two of the following user preferences: day of the week, time of day, one or more keywords, sender, location, spam score, type of attachment, or forwarded account.
 18. A system for creating a content-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols, the system comprising: a database storing user account configuration and preference information; and a server coupled to the database, the server adapted to receive a first message having a first protocol of the plurality of communication protocols; to determine whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided; when the content-based notification is to be provided, to extract a subset of information from the first message; using the subset of information, to create a second message having a second protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, the second protocol being different than the first protocol, and the second message providing the content-based notification of the first message.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to encapsulate the second message as a data payload in a third message having a third protocol; to provide an address header for the third message for the mobile device; and to transmit the third message to a wireless network for extraction of the second message from the third message and transmission of the second message to the mobile device.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first protocol is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) or an extension of Simple Mail Transport Protocol, wherein the second protocol is Short Message Service (SMS), and wherein the third protocol is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), an extension of Simple Mail Transport Protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Extensible Markup Language (XML), SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for Instant Messaging and Presence Leverage Extensions (SIMPLE), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), or Instant Messaging (IM).
 21. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to authenticate an account of the recipient of the first message.
 22. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to filter the first message using at least one security filter of a plurality of security filters, the plurality of security filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: Directory Harvest Attack Protection; Secure Sockets Layer; Transport Layer Security; Real-time Blacklist Lookup; an allowable message list; a prohibited message list; and a user-defined security processes.
 23. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to modify, reject, delete, redirect, archive, log or quarantine the first message.
 24. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to filter the first message using at least one filter of a plurality of filters, the plurality of filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: an anti-virus filter; an anti-spam filter; a sieve rule filter; an insertion filter; and a user-defined filter.
 25. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to apply a plurality of sieve rule processes to the first message.
 26. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to extract the subset of information from the first message by selecting a plurality of fields of the first message, the plurality of fields comprising at least two of the following fields: a “FROM” field; a “TO” field; a “DATE” field; a “SIZE” field; a “SUBJECT” field; a “CC” field; all or a variable portion of a “BODY” field up to a remaining capacity of the second message; an attachment type; an attachment name; a number of attachments; an attachment size; an inserted tag; an inserted message; an inserted banner; an inserted spam score; an email group designation; or a user-defined field.
 27. The system of claim 26, wherein the server is further adapted to create the second message by differentially selecting the plurality of fields based on whether the first message was transmitted as a message forward or as a direct message.
 28. The system of claim 18, wherein the first protocol has a first information capacity and the second protocol has a second information capacity, and wherein the second information capacity is substantially less than the first information capacity.
 29. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to, in response to a user request, transfer the first message for transmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device.
 30. The system of claim 29, wherein the user request is transmitted using a fourth protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, and wherein the fourth protocol is a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).
 31. The system of claim 18, further comprising: a web server coupled to the database, the web server adapted to provide user access for user account configuration and user preference determination, and to store user account configuration and preference information in the database.
 32. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further adapted to determine whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided by determining at least one user preference of a plurality of user preferences, the plurality of user preferences comprising at least two of the following user preferences: day of the week, time of day, one or more keywords, sender, location, spam score, type of attachment, or forwarded account.
 33. An apparatus for creating a content-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols, the apparatus comprising: a network interface couplable to a communication channel to receive a first message having a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) of the plurality of communication protocols and to transmit a third SMTP message to a wireless network for extraction of a second message from the third message and transmission of the second message to the mobile device; a memory storing user account configuration and preference information; and a processor coupled to the network interface and to the memory, the processor adapted to authenticate an account of the recipient of the first message; to determine whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided; when the content-based notification is to be provided, to extract a subset of information by selecting a plurality of fields from the first message and, using the subset of information, to create the second message having a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, and the second message providing the content-based notification of the first message; to encapsulate the second message as a data payload in the third message and to provide an address header for the third message for the mobile device.
 34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the processor is further adapted to filter the first message using at least one security filter of a plurality of security filters, the plurality of security filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: Directory Harvest Attack Protection; Secure Sockets Layer; Transport Layer Security; Real-time Blacklist Lookup; an allowable message list; a prohibited message list; and a user-defined security processes.
 35. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the processor is further adapted to modify, reject, delete, redirect, archive, log or quarantine the first message.
 36. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the processor is further adapted to filter the first message using at least one filter of a plurality of filters, the plurality of filters comprising at least two filters of the following group: an anti-virus filter; an anti-spam filter; a sieve rule filter; an insertion filter; and a user-defined filter.
 37. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the processor is further adapted to apply a plurality of sieve rule processes to the first message to select the plurality of fields of the first message, the plurality of fields comprising at least two of the following fields: a “FROM” field; a “TO” field; a “DATE” field; a “SIZE” field; a “SUBJECT” field; a “CC” field; all or a variable portion of a “BODY” field up to a remaining capacity of the second message; an attachment type; an attachment name; a number of attachments; an attachment size; an inserted tag; an inserted message; an inserted banner; an inserted spam score; an email group designation; or a user-defined field.
 38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the processor is further adapted to create the second message by differentially selecting the plurality of fields based on whether the first message was transmitted as a message forward or as a direct message.
 39. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the processor is further adapted to, in response to a user request transmitted using a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), to transfer the first message for transmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device.
 40. A system for creating a content-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols, the system comprising: a database storing user account configuration and preference information; a first server coupled to the database, the first server adapted to provide user web access for user account configuration and user preference determination; and a second server coupled to the database, the second server adapted to receive a first message having a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) of the plurality of communication protocols; to authenticate an account of the recipient of the first message; to filter the first message using a plurality of filters; to determine whether the content-based notification for the first message should be provided; when the content-based notification is to be provided, to extract a subset of information by differentially selecting a plurality of fields from the first message and, using the subset of information, to create a second message having a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol of the plurality of communication protocols; to encapsulate the second message as a data payload in a third SMTP message; to provide an address header for the third SMTP message for the mobile device; to transmit the third SMTP message to a wireless network for extraction of the second message from the third message and transmission of the second message to the mobile device as the content-based notification of the first message; to receive a user request transmitted using a fourth protocol, wherein the fourth protocol is a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP); and in response to the user request, to transfer the first message for transmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device.
 41. A tangible medium storing machine-readable instructions for creating a content-based notification for a mobile device using a plurality of communication protocols, the tangible medium storing machine-readable instructions comprising: a first program construct of a plurality of program constructs, the first program construct adapted to provide for storing user account configuration and preference information; a second program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the second program construct adapted to determine whether the content-based notification should be provided for a received first message having a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) of the plurality of communication protocols; a third program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the third program construct adapted, when the content-based notification is to be provided, to extract a subset of information by differentially selecting a plurality of fields from the first message; a fourth program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the fourth program construct adapted to use the subset of information to create a second message having a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol of the plurality of communication protocols; a fifth program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the fifth program construct adapted to encapsulate the second message as a data payload in a third SMTP message and to provide an address header for the third SMTP message for the mobile device; a sixth program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the sixth program construct adapted to receive a user request transmitted using a fourth protocol, wherein the fourth protocol is a version of either Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP); and a seventh program construct of the plurality of program constructs, the seventh program construct adapted, in response to the user request, to transfer the first message for transmission of all or part of the first message to the mobile device. 